Thursday, April 29, 2010

In preparation for Stephen's change of duty stations, his command set a date to present him with an award, the Navy Commendation Medal. It was presented to him by Colonel Cromwell, the commanding officer at Headquarter's Battalion aboard Camp LeJeune Marine Corps Base. (Did I just sound smart? I was trying...lol) And as a matter of fact, the colonel requested that I attend as well.

So after stressing on what I would wear, and putting on my war paint makeup, I was on the road to the base. I had planned to leave a little early to grab a snack on the way, but of course that didn't happen. Although I DID leave right on time. But that didn't seem to matter since I seemed to get behind every single slow driver possible. While on base, I was cut off by a small yellow cart that has no business being on the road, it's so slow. We're talking no faster than 5 mph.....all the while, I'm convinced I'm going to be late.

I hurry inside to find that they're still waiting on a few details before they can start. Whew! I made it in time, with time to spare. So all is well in the world...until......

Everyone ventured outside, as the BAS corpsmen got into formation. I asked one of Stephen's corpsmen/ friend if he would do the honors of taking pictures for me. I always feel like I don't know what I'm doing at these functions. Where do I stand? Can I take pictures of that? Can I move around? What do I do with my hands? Do I smile? Do I laugh? Do I look fat in this outfit? Ok so forget I just mentioned that last one. I don't want to know the answer. Anywho...he obliged with excitement. That is until he asked if there was a limit to how many pictures he could take. I was going to check to see what pictures were on the memory card so that I could format it, and found that I had forgotten my card at home! How could I have not checked the camera before I left? So I thought all was lost and that we'd just have to store this memory in the old memory bank. Sure to be lost forever considering my memory..lol

But HNBleigh had other plans. He ran off back inside the building to see if he could find a CF card. I had my doubts. Major doubts. Who in the WORLD would have a CF memory card inside of a military medical facility? But I learned never to doubt him again. Evidently on one of the floors above their medical clinic was combat camera's office. For those of you not familiar with the military, they are photographers for the Marines. They take pictures for events, promotional pictures etc. (Or at least that's what I'm under the impression they do). They had one that they let him borrow. So we were back up an running, ready to shoot!

So a big thank you to Tim Bleigh for rescuing this scatter brained corpsman wife. So on with the pictures already!

Stephen on his way to receive his award from the Colonel.

Colonel Cromwell speaking to everyone about HM1 Armstrong's service while at the BAS. (Basic Aid Station)